, on the chance of just such
an occasion as this. She adjusted the elastic round her thin waist, and
sat down again. The apron was a sign that she had come definitely to
spend the whole evening. It was a proof of the completeness of the
reconciliation between the former friends.

As the conversation shifted from the immediate topic of the weather to
the great general question of cures for chilblains, Hilda wondered what
had passed between her mother and Miss Gailey, and whether her mother
had overcome by mere breezy force or by guile: which details she never
learnt, for Mrs. Lessways was very loyal to her former crony, and
moreover she had necessarily to support the honour of the older
generation against the younger. It seemed incredible to Hilda that this
woman who sat with such dignity and such gentility by her mother's fire
was she who the day before yesterday had been starving in the
pride-imposed prison of her own house. Could Miss Gailey have known that
Hilda knew!... But Hilda knew that Miss Gailey knew that she knew--and
that others guessed! Such, however, was the sublime force of convention
that the universal pretence of ignorance securely triumphed.

Then Florrie--changed, grown, budded, practised in the technicalities of
parlours, but timid because of "company"--came in to set the tea. And
Miss Gailey inspected her with the calm and omniscient detachment of a
deity, and said to Caroline when she was gone that Florrie seemed a
promising little thing--with the 'makings of a good servant' in her.
Afterwards the mistress recounted this judgment to Florrie, who was
thereby apparently much impressed and encouraged in well-doing.

III

"And so you're thinking of going to London, Miss Gailey?" said Hilda,
during tea. The meal was progressing satisfactorily, though Caroline
could not persuade Sarah to eat enough.

Miss Gailey flushed slightly, with the characteristic nervous movement
of the head. Evidently her sensitiveness was extreme.

"And what do you know about it, you inquisitive little puss?" Mrs.
Lessways intervened hastily, though it was she who had informed Hilda of
the vague project. Somehow, in presence of her old friend, Mrs. Lessways
seemed to feel herself under an obligation to play the assertive and
crushing mother.

"Has Mr. Cannon mentioned it?" said Miss Gailey politely. Miss Gailey,
at any rate, recognized in the most scrupulous way that Hilda was an
adult, and no longer a foal-legged pupi